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On May 7, 2022, Jay, WA0WWW, and I put 20 counties in ID and OR on the air. We started at a pullout looking toward the west side of the Teton Mountains in Teton county Idaho. From there we proceeded south and west across the Snake River Plain before turning north at Boise and ending the party in Washington county, Idaho after 12 hours of operating.
We ended with 500 Qs and 58 mults for a claimed score of 87,000 which was down from last year's 18 hour exertion. Twenty meters was good to us with 327 Qs followed by 109 on 40 m and a decent 64 Qs on 15 m. In Canyon county we got into heavy rain showers that combined with adjacent power line noise resulted in me simply turning off the radio for 15 minutes. Soon after turning it back on in Ada county, the rain and power lines again combined for a 40 minute delay in making any Qs. The rainstorms came back to us in Washington county, but they were not strong enough to cause us to shut down and, in fact, produced the brightest full arc, double rainbow I've ever seen.
This year we missed only ND, SD, MS, and VT for WAS. Nine DX stations in NP, DK, HA, HB9, JA, OM, SP, and V31 found us with HB9 on 15 m and the rest on 20 m. Our most constant companion was John, N6MU, in CA who worked us in 16 of our 20 counties. Others with notable numbers of contacts were VE5MX, AH6KO, K6KM, and N8II. A total of 200 different calls made it into our log.
The rig was an Elecraft KX2 and an Elecraft KXPA100 to a Scorpion 680 antenna mounted in the center of the bed of my 2002 Ford Ranger. We used N1MM+ on an HP laptop with full rig control and a MORTTY for CW keying.
Jay and I thank all who contacted us as well as those who tried and didn't make it.
Pictures and comments from along the route.
Pictures and comments from along the route.
This is our view from the starting point in Teton county Idaho. On the other side of the snow-covered foot hills are the Teton Mountains of Jackson Hole, WY fame. For us the clouds protected the view. This location was good for 26 Qs nearly equally split between 20 and 40 m during our half hour there.
We are now in Butte county alongside Craters of the Moon National Monument. The dark rocks are lava and the clouds have thinned. We made 63 Qs in this county. Maybe it was the dark lava or maybe because we were in the county for an hour, but this was our most productive county.
Fast forward to Washington county, Idaho. The rain has just moved away, the sunset is streaming under the clouds, and the view was outstanding. We collected 24 Qs in Washington county with many of them during the rainstorm as the day and our effort came to an end.
The Plan
The Plan
Jay, WA0WWW, and I will start in Idaho Teton county then 17 more Idaho counties, a single Oregon county, and finally a last Idaho county. All of the operation will be CW, hopefully, on frequencies ending in 0385, such as 7038.5 or 14.0385 MHz. We will try to split operating time between 20 and 40 m until 20 m dies out. 15 m was good for us in the IDQP in March, so we will take a look at it occasionally. You can work us every time we change bands or counties.
Here is a schedule of when we hope to enter a county and a route map.
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